doing with drugs, and not getting goodresults; also bad side effects. Sciencehas found that if you can stimulate thebrain electrically, and you get it right, itreplicates the body’s natural function-ing.”“It’s a challenge figuring out where,how much, what frequency. To do that,you need virtual models. Everybody isdifferent and we need to understandwhat markers you can measure and thenput those into the virtual models. Wehave been working with groups learningto simulate the electrical currents as theygo through the brain, where they go,where to put stimulation and where notto. That is our next big domain.”Levine adds that this is such acomplex industry, what needs to bementioned is that what they’ve foundout as they get deeper into the project isthat there are many people, pockets ofknowledge, that are looking for ways toaccumulate and transform their knowl-edge into making it useable.

“We can imagine a future when thistechnology becomes so standard thatwhen a person goes to have an MRI,they get a model of their own heartthat becomes part of a database soit can be compared to hearts aroundthe world, thus identifying people likethem with the same condition whohave had treatments, where someworked and some didn’t and can learnfrom that.”“Thinking even farther into the future,it could be as if every human had adigital twin that replicated their specificanatomy and all their organs, internalsystems, and defects; a viewable, physio-logical model that is updated as a livingmedial record over time (Figure 4).”This simulation technology is onlythe tip of the sword. The real power ofit is being able to create a platform. The3DEXPERIENCE platform enablespeople to experience things in 3D, likethe virtual heart. But more importantly,it allows them to see it, share it, correlatethe data, eventually use it for regulatorypurposes.

“Our goal is to create something
everyone can use in a managed way and
can use in whatever their project is and
then share it. This is the key to transition;
to be able to take this additive technology from the best minds in science and
make it available to any doctor, to any
device developer, to any drug manufacturer. We don’t do this in a vacuum; we
do it with the goal of where can it go and
who can it help.” MDT